I am grateful for a lovely weekend with our friends who drove across the country (that would be a 2.5hour drive :)) to spend the Easter weekend with us. We have been friends for a long time, and since we live SO far from each other, our visits always involve an overnight stay. Over the years these have changed from late nights on the town and whole-night birthday parties in BC (before children) times, through passing out at 9pm only to get up multiple times at night in the early days of parenting, to passing out at 8pm after a day of trying to keep four children born within five years alive, to actually staying up til 11pm (!) with a bottle of good wine and discussing politics, never ending exhaustion, meaning of life and other stuff that comes up after the second glass. See, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and it is not a train – with the youngest of the four children being 3.5 we are not quite at the point of having an uninterrupted dinner yet but it HAS gotten easier.

They arrived on Saturday late morning and we spent the afternoon visiting the dinosaurs expo in Rotterdam, where we decided to, on top of our children, take Una’s best friend and his brother with. A good time was had by all and it went much better than we Mark had feared but seriously, you do need one adult per child to ensure everyone’s safety and sort of sanity. On Sunday we went to Delftse Hout for the Easter egg hunt and stayed on for a few hours as the weather was lovely, hired two rowing boats and chilled on the terrace of Knus, followed by cooking a festive Easter dinner (my Tiramisu turned out delicious, not to brag or anything). The Monday morning was the time to say goodbyes which did not go without tears by the kids. Until the next long weekend/birthday party/opportunity to do the cross country drive!

Protecting Una from the dinos

Nestor was happy to admire the T-rex from a safe distance only

All six of them

Easter egg hunt

Meeting Paashaas (Easter Bunny)

Merrily, merrily…

Delftse Hout is one of my favourite places in Delft. Here you can see why.